Advertising demand increases Yahoo’s profits
An increase in online advertising helped profits at Yahoo almost treble in the three months to the end of March.
Net profit rose to £200m from £79m in the same period a year ago.
The company’s takings were helped by its search and advertising partnership with Microsoft and sake of the Zimbra email service.
But after subtracting commissions paid to its advertising partners, Yahoo’s revenue slipped slightly to £750 million.
This was below analyst’s estimates – pushing Yahoo shares about 3% lower in after hours trading.
The firm’s chief financial officer, Tim Morse, said that its search advertising business “just didn’t seem to grow at the pace they had previously”.
However its display advertising business was strong, growing 20% year on year.
“High quality advertisers are coming back,” Mr Morse said. “We are still in the very early innings of this turnaround.”
Earlier this year, Microsoft’s plans to buy Yahoo’s internet search and search advertising businesses were been cleared by both European and US regulators.
The European Commission ruled that the deal “would not significantly impede effective competition”.
Under the deal, Yahoo’s website uses a Microsoft’s Bing search engine, and the two firms share the revenues.
